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rshaffer61

Posted 29 September 2013 - 01:54 PM

Now burn this ISO image to a CD and boot your computer with it.NOTE: Keep in mind that this is different than burning a file to a CD-ROM. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download CDBurnerXP Pro to another Windows machine and install it. Then go Here for instructions for burning the ISO image

Once the CD is created, place it in the defunct computer

Then reboot your broken PC with that CD in the CD-ROM drive.

Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device.NOTE: You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)

When the PC boots, it will boot from the CD...after the first several screens load, you will be given a choice to choose R for Recovery Console. You will be asked to log in.NOTE: For Windows XP Home, there is not password, just hit ENTER. For Windows XP pro, ask whomever set up the machine what password they used.

Running "ChkDsk"

At the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt, type

chkdsk /r

Press ENTER

Let this scan run UNINTERUPTED until completed (30 min or so depending on the drive)

Report any errors in your next reply

Once the scan is complete, Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console.

Your computer will now restart, boot from the CD again and continue with the next steps.

Using "BootCfg /Rebuild" to fix the "Boot.ini" file

At the Recovery console C:\WINDOWS prompt, type

bootcfg /rebuild

Press ENTERNote: The bootcfg /rebuild command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP installations, and then displays the results. You can add the detected Windows installations.

When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y:

Total Identified Windows Installs: 1

[1] C:\Windows
Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)

NOTE: You may see more than one entry here if you have a dual boot windows system. If this is the case follow this procedure for ALL installations to make sure that all OS's are added correctly

You receive a message that is similar to the following message:

Enter Load Identifier

NOTE: This is the name of the operating system. This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

Type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER

You receive a message that is similar to the following:

Enter OS Load options

Type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER.

Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console.

Your computer will restart, and the updated boot list may appear when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message.

If you see a Boot list with multiple entries choose the XP Home option to boot to windows.

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esbo

Posted 29 September 2013 - 04:48 PM

I will have a look at it, I need to be sure what I am doing, the situation was that the the run of chkdsk
caused my computer to become unbootable last time I ran it.

I currently have one drive which is boot-able, it's an older drive, I also have the newer drive
which became unbootable after running a chkdsk, so not much point on running it on that as it has
never really booted since.

The machine was a HP machine with a pre-installed windows XP and a recovery partition.

The drive which will boot is in a bit of a weird state, it boot's me to a temporary desk top

It boots me to
c:\Documents and settings\TEMP.HP\desktop even though I login as HP_Owner

Whereas it should put me to

c:\Documents and settings\HP_owner\desktop

Further more it does not seem to remember any changes I make. But I am not sure about this, I have just made a test file and
have rebooted and I will see if it is still there when I reboot.

Also a weird thing runs at start something called cloaker.exe and pintostart.bat
I tried to disable them in msconfig but they keep coming back so not I have hidden them

That might not work though as it is virus like in it's operation, or so it seems, it seem to be some
secretive HP thing, even the name 'cloaker' suggests that.

rshaffer61

Posted 29 September 2013 - 05:07 PM

The process known as Cloaker belongs to software Cloaker, Cloaker, Cloaker by Hewlett-Packard Co (www.hp.com).

Also according to what I found also the above and pintostart.bat could be a hidden malware problem.

The only thing my instructions are intended to do is correct the boot.ini file that would allow the hal problem to be resolved. From there we can check for a dirty bit and resolve it or a hd issue itself. Once you get back into windows it might be a better ideal to stop here and have you go straight to our Malware techs and have them do some deep scans and look for any hidden malware.

esbo

Posted 01 October 2013 - 05:04 PM

The process known as Cloaker belongs to software Cloaker, Cloaker, Cloaker by Hewlett-Packard Co (www.hp.com).

Also according to what I found also the above and pintostart.bat could be a hidden malware problem.

The only thing my instructions are intended to do is correct the boot.ini file that would allow the hal problem to be resolved. From there we can check for a dirty bit and resolve it or a hd issue itself. Once you get back into windows it might be a better ideal to stop here and have you go straight to our Malware techs and have them do some deep scans and look for any hidden malware.

OK, finally at lat the problem if fixed big thanks to Paul on Google groups for his help.

Some of the stuff mentioned here might have achieve the same fix no doubt although I and not too sure what they detail. But in the end editing the boot partition records to make the right partitions bootable seemed to do the trick.

Don't know if malware was involved, don't thinks so the probs started with a dodgy drive connectorwhich you would expect to give you some grief and it did.

There does no seem to be a solution to the pintostart issue, seems it may be due to a corrupt user profile so the solution seems to be create a new profile and copy everything to it.

However that was on the older 250meg drive which was used to investigate the newer 500gb drive, as the newer 500gb drive now works the older one does not matter as much.

the pin to start might be a bit of a red herring if the profile is corrupt, stiill not clear on it.

rshaffer61

Posted 01 October 2013 - 05:51 PM

rshaffer61

Moderator

Moderator

34,114 posts

That is great to hear and I honestly think the pin to start is a red herring. It is a legitimate program but it also has been associated with some malware. In your case I think it is legit. The 00 gig working is what I was hoping we could resolve and it looks like the help from Google did the job. With that I am very happy to say Congratulations esbo. for a successful resolution for your issue.

I'm glad we could help and please let us know how everything works out for you. If there is anything else we can do to help please feel free to ask. I appreciate that you allowed us to assist you with your issue and for your patience. Thank you for choosing GeeksToGo for help. This issue now appears to be resolved.

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